The
importance of breastfeeding has been reechoed by the health department through
its health promotion and education unit director.
At
a recent meeting at the National Nutrition Agency, in commemoration of World
Breastfeeding Week, the country’s health promotion director said: “Children
have to be exclusively breastfed throughout the first six months of life. They
ought to be given appropriate solid or semisolid complementary foods in
addition to continued breastfeeding, from age 6 months to at least 24 months,
as recommended by UNICEF and WHO.”
It
is important that nursing parents, especially lactating mothers, pay heed to
this advice to prevent the ramifications of not breastfeeding our babies
adequately.
Well
researched facts have proven that children who are breastfed have a 2.6 point
higher intelligence quotient than non-breastfed children. This is because
breast milk is a natural, renewable food. It is also environmentally safe as it
is pure and free from pollution.
Furthermore,
it is on record that about 823,000
children die annually due to sub-optimal infant feeding practices; whilst additionally, 20,000 deaths occur due to
breast cancer that could be “averted if mothers adopt optimal breastfeeding”.
Not
breastfeeding is also said to be associated with economic losses of about $302
billion annually or 0.49 per cent of world gross national income.
These
are enough pointers that should speak to the conscience of mothers that
breastfeeding is the natural route to bringing up a baby healthier and to
become highly intelligent.
According
to our health department, Gambian women are faced with many obstacles to
breastfeeding, which include long working hours, psychosocial pressure,
inadequate lactation support from male partners at home, inadequate access to
skilled breastfeeding counseling, and aggressive marketing of breast milk
substitutes.
However,
all efforts should be made by parents to adhere to strict breastfeeding in the
upbringing if infants in the first six months of life.
It
is all to our own good and benefit. So let’s pay heed to the advice by our
health department, as a word for the wise is quite sufficient.
“While
breastfeeding may not seem the right choice for every parent, it is the best
choice for every baby .”
